Replication of �No Sorting, No Advantage: Regression Discontinuity Estimates of Incumbency Advantage in Japan� (Kenichi Ariga, Yusaku Horiuchi, Roland Mansilla, and Michio Umeda). Electoral Studies, Vol. 43, pp. 21-31, September 2016. 
* Description: While the existing literature has identified a sizable incumbency advantage in single-member district (SMD) races in developed democracies, we argue that some political and institutional contexts of Japan's Lower House elections would undermine the incumbency advantage. Our regression discontinuity (RD) analysis indeed shows little advantage, and further examination suggests this as largely due to the �best-loser� provision in Japan's mixed-member system, which gives a loser of SMD competition a chance to be a �resurrected� incumbent. We also show no evidence of sorting � i.e., systematic difference between bare winners and bare losers � in close SMD races and thus add further evidence to support the methodological argument that the election RD analysis is a viable and promising research design.* Files included in this compressed replication package[folder] data * This folder includes data files necessary for replication.[folder] figures * All figures are generated and saved in this folder[folder] output * Other files are generated and saved in this folder- Replication1_Analysis.do
- Replication2_Figures.do
- Replication3_McCraryTest.do
- Replication4_AdditionalAnalyses.do
- Replication5_FigureA1.do
* Programs used to verify replication: 
- Stata Version 13.1
- Stata Version 14.2
- R 3.4.4

* Additional packages required:
- Install "rdrobust" package (https://sites.google.com/site/rdpackages/rdrobust). See additional instructions given in Replication1_Analysis.do. 

* Additional packages used to verify replication:
- Original results: rdrobust version 6.0 14Oct2014
- New results: rdrobust version version 7.3.0 09Jun2017

* Process of Replication:
(1) Download ReplicationPackage file
(2) Set the working directory, which should be the folder with this ReadMe file
(3) [Stata] Run Replication codes 1 and 2 sequentially
(4) [R] Run Replication code 3.
(5) [Stata] Run Replication codes 4 and 5. 

* Most Recent Date of Successful Replication: May 16-17, 2018
